On the first floor of the building marked 39 Calle Palma, in the Historic Center of Mexico City, there is a unique craft workshop that looks more like a creativity factory, where students, led by Professor Lipandri, mold and dye figures that, with the necessary hygiene measures, touch art, without losing humor or discipline.
From the window you can see a violinist who plays a classic piece on 16 de Septiembre Street, where you can also see a rush of employees and vendors trying to attract the attention of clueless customers. Further on, an opera duet prepares to insert their voices. They are three of the many urban musicians that occupy the area.
One block away is the Zócalo, which crossing it leads to the National Palace and the Metropolitan Cathedral; But first, you will have to go through the portals of the City Council and the jewelry stores, where you can see a panorama without fanfare, since the hubbub is limited by the pandemic.
Employees and business owners make their way without neglecting their forecasts; others, very few, seem to defy the virus, preferring to strut without masks. Looks of astonishment are perceived on them, but the aforementioned walk boastfully, removed from their grief.
People visit shops, museums, restaurants, inns, cafes, or simply go to enjoy an ice cream or sit on the sidewalks or simply visit the so-called first painting as a way of sightseeing in their city, which gives a cosmopolitan air between colonial buildings. .
It is only a part of the scenery that frames that old building, whose door has the number 39; and then we will have to go up to the first floor, which is on the corner of September 16, where the teacher Miguel Ángel Lipandri, armed with patience, erudition and discipline, sets off the imagination of his students who mold and dye figures.
It is the Atelier M handicraft workshop, which has overcome the onslaught of covid-19, with an expert who discovered new paths for creativity and, he assures, to heal through art.
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The outbreak of the pandemic, responsible for so many losses, has also caused many entrepreneurs to use technology and not be intimidated; on the contrary: it has been a stimulus.
At Atelier M, whose leader is Miguel Ángel Lipandri, they have perfected their technique with accumulated experience, and they have arguments to drop a phrase: healing through art.
He knows well what he says.
That is why they could not be left behind and so they boarded the train of new forms of teaching through social networks and other tools; although they know that it is not the same to be in front of a screen to the physical presence of the teacher, who coexists and transmits knowledge.
From the age of 6, Lipandri helped her mother with manual tasks, a task that helped her sustain her Communication and Language career, which she practiced for a time.
“We could say that I have been working with crafts for almost 43 years, because that is what I am passionate about,” he says.
—And how it begins.
—The story is that my mother made dolls for my brothers and took us to kindergarten. That’s where all my attention began. With the leftovers that he had left, I made certain crafts and sold them; from there he earned income to buy more material and continue investing.
Later, in high school, he took the Plastic Arts workshop. It was when he perfected the techniques and combined his knowledge.
“There is a mixture of everything.”
-That’s how it is; At Atelier M they tell us: it is not a craft store, it is an atelier; and yes, it really is an art workshop, because we also focus on rescuing old furniture to turn it into vintage.
And their work has transcended borders through social networks, especially in Central America, in such a way that it has forced them to undertake new techniques that go beyond simple crafts.
“We try to go into the background of why, when and how,” says Lapandri. “For example, we could not invest 25 thousand pesos in a frame to decorate it with gold leaf, but we can do it fictitiously, giving that part more authenticity.”
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A reef that was opened with the pandemic is that many people remain at home and suffer from stress, are distraught and are aware of social networks; that’s where they come in, as they put their tutorials on sale.
Lipandri says they take advantage of that niche online, “which leads me to develop much more techniques and undertake more crafts.”
“They also come from different places.”
—Now they told me that they are seeing us in 10 countries. We have students from Costa Rica, our largest market, and there are teachers who tell me: “Professor, you are very famous in Costa Rica.”
And it is that the first contact that they have between thousands of people, even from other continents, is in the handicrafts exhibition that was held every year at the Word Trade Center.
“And you sell the material.”
—Yes, we sell a kit and the class; It includes the materials so that our students can develop it.
“Are they molds?”
—They are silicone molds, plastic stencils, we have different materials to make moldings, wooden boxes, paints, aged, inks, alcohol, resin, wood pastes; it is an infinity of materials that we use for all these projects.
And the most people are women, because crafts are not only used to entertain themselves, but to start a business.
“You are very strict.”
—There they tell me I’m a grumpy teacher and I tell them: “I’m not grumpy, I’m demanding”, and why demanding: because if you’re going to sell a project, sell it well, and don’t tell you: “Look, now You saw this little detail, how much is the least ”. No, that they buy it because it does not have any errors and because your work is well prepared.
And among the students is the teacher Arcelia Cepeda, who attends with the intention of learning more techniques and enriching hers, since she teaches classes in a federal government agency.
She is working on a pasta embossed photo frame. “I have learned a lot about finishing techniques; to imitate, for example, metal, in a piece of wood ”.
“And what do you suggest for this job?”
“A lot of patience and that we like it,” says Cepeda, “a lot of perseverance and above all to practice, to have a love for the arts and crafts, because we can say that it is even within the applied arts.”
Observe and observe, Professor Lepandri repeats, “because that is how we learn to create new things”.
The workshop is a permanent gallery of works placed on shelves, such as a pair of little black angels, jugs, cups and hearts. The materials are prepared here, such as “the duked gold that we find in churches”, Miguel Ángel Lipandri details as they parade before his eyes and caress the perfectly finished figures.
It is the Atelier M workshop, where they teach different techniques, such as the application of false rust, among others, forged in various objects.
“How would you describe your work?”
—This is part of my essence, of my emotions, of my feelings, which I always like to transmit with my students, with other teachers, so that they may find a refuge and a healing.
-Heal?
—Healing through art.
They are his words.
Humberto Ríos Navarrete
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